Players cite lack of police presence at court where Chris Jones was shot

A man talks the day after a non-fatal shooting at an East Memphis basketball court near a police station.
Daniel Connolly/The Commercial Appeal

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Darin Abston Jr., 25, poses for a portrait at the basketball courts by the Mount Moriah police precinct. He said police should do more to ensure security at the site.(Photo: Daniel Connolly, The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo

The basketball courts are close to the Mount Moriah police precinct. How close? You could throw a rock from the court and hit a police car in the precinct parking lot.

Yet the basketball courts near Halle Stadium in East Memphis became a crime scene around 11 p.m. Tuesday, Memphis police said. Shots were fired and former Melrose High star and professional basketball player Chris Jones was hit in the leg.

The following day, men interviewed on the sidelines of pickup basketball games said fights and other problems are common at the courts. They said the police don't exert control, even though their station is only a few feet away.

Police spokesman Louis C. Brownlee said the statements about police lack of control at the courts aren't accurate.

"You're right there at your parents' house. Kids aren't going to cut up that bad," he said.

Some players see it differently. "There isn't any police presence here," said Eric Robinson, at 49 one of the older men at the site that day.

Fights break out over the simplest things, like fouls on the court or disrespectful language, Robinson said on the sideline as balls bounced and players' shoes squeaked.

Robinson recalled one fight in which a guy got jumped and ran into the police precinct for safety, and his pursuers ran right in after him. He said they were arrested, but the situation illustrates lack of fear of police.

Dressed in work clothes from his job in a chewing tobacco production facility, he said he often comes to the basketball court to play pickup games, but not at night, because it's a different crowd and too dangerous.

People simply resort to violence, he said. "Instead of talking through it logically."

Seconds after he said those words, a man walked by and yelled, "Shot my little cousin! I'm gonna kill him when I get up here!" It wasn't clear if he was talking about the shooting of Chris Jones.

"You see what I mean?" Robinson continued. "We got a lot of ignorance."

Players on the courts Wednesday afternoon ranged from young boys and girls to a man with graying hair.

Darin Abston Jr., 25, formerly in the U.S. Air Force, said some people at the courts openly display gang "flags," or bandannas hanging from pockets, and some carry guns. He said the police should pay more attention to what's happening there.

He said he saw the argument that preceded the shooting. He said the people left and came back later, and shots were actually fired twice on Tuesday night - first from a car when no one one was hit, then later that same night, when Jones was hurt. In the second shooting, it wasn't clear where the shots came from, he said.

He said police didn't appear to take it seriously. "They just looked and said everybody should leave. They did nothing to find out who did what and make safety."

The police incident report describes an investigation that included calling the fire department, contacting the department's Felony Response unit and collecting and tagging shell casings as evidence. The report says there were no available witnesses or surveillance cameras at the time of the incident.

A man heard Abston talking with a reporter and told him he shouldn't do it, saying that he'd draw the police into the area and they'd start checking people's identifications for warrants.

The ID checks have happened before, several men said. Among them was 29-year-old Damon Riley, who has the phrase "Lord Knows" tattooed on his face, one word beneath each eye.

He said he felt the officers were harassing the players with the ID checks. But he wasn't impressed with their response when the shooting happened. "They ain't even really policemen," said Riley.

At the nearby precinct, Maj. Robbin Campbell said he had to refer most questions to the spokesman, but said statements about police indifference and lack of control at the courts aren't accurate. ​​​​"That's not true at all," he said.

Robinson, the man in his 40s, said he's thinking about quitting coming to the courts to play.

And Brownlee, the police spokesman, said he'd received word from precinct commander Col. Joe Oakley that the precinct planned to step up patrols, with officers in cars driving by the area and officers conducting foot patrols when time permits in their tour of duty.

Reach reporter Daniel Connolly at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.